In particular, what's the difference between uncertainty and measurement noise in engineering?
2 Answers
Essentially, noise is the result of having picked up something you didn't want, and uncertainty is the result of having not picked up something you did want.
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My understanding of uncertainty in this sense is that it's a product of the coarseness of the measuring equipment. For instance if your measuring equipment is 90% accurate the uncertainly is 10%.– BoldBenJul 5, 2020 at 18:06
Noise is a concrete noun (for the want of the correct linguistic term). It is used to describe the background events that occur whether or not an experimental disturbance (producing specific signals of interest) is present.
Uncertainty is an abstract noun for the condition resulting from being unable to distinguish or separate the above signal from the “noise”.
Although the usage is technical, the grammatical difference between the two nouns should be evident.